Obake Yashiki: The 31st
by JeyG-Sparrow
Summary: Directly after the confrontation between Hiro and the Tadashi impostor, the sadistic villain Obake chooses to pay dear Cass Hamada a visit. A rough drabble of Hamada family angst.


**Obake Yashiki: The 31st**

It was hours after the Lucky Cat Café had closed, but Cass had only just finished piling all of the newly cleaned dishes away. Scrubbing the sink and depositing the food filter into the garbage, Cass quickly rinsed her water-wrinkled hands and dried them on her jeans, too tired to care for using a towel. She flipped the lights off and exited the Café kitchen to walk upon the front counter, blinking twice when she registered a lonely plate reserved for her dinner with cold food now spoiling at room temperature. Cass sighed, no longer feeling hungry; she just wanted to get lost in her pillows and blankets and never get up again.

Under the dim lighting of the closed Coffee Shop, Cass gently picked up her abandoned meal and prepared to take it upstairs, figuring she shouldn't let it go to waste and at least see if Mochi or Hiro were up for cold chicken. However she hardly went past the front counter when the sudden figure of a man stood in her path, his face hidden in the darkness but his posture and clothes outline inexplicably recognizable. Cass could not hold back a shocked gasp at the appearance of the stranger, terror seizing her heart at the thought of an intruder standing right in front of her in her own home past eleven o'clock at night. She tentatively stepped backwards, her nerves on edge, unable to wonder how he would have gotten in, or how she could not have heard his approach, or why he looked so familiar, because all that filled her mind was the solid threat staring her right in the eyes, and she was _afraid,_ afraid for Hiro, afraid for herself, afraid for what the man had come to take. However before she could get herself to scream, yell, or make any sound to attract help, the man had lifted his head out of the darkness and into the light of the café beams, revealing soft brown eyes, shaggy yet kempt raven hair, an all-too-distinct cap over his head and a small, sorrowful smile. And now Cass knew who it was… or rather, who it looked like. There was no possible outcome for how it could be who she thought it was. No other option, no other choice. Yet there he was.

Cass hardly registered the crash of her dinner plate shattering into pieces across the wooden floor. Her hands were over her mouth, though she did not recall putting them there. She could not break away the locked gaze she now shared with the stranger, the man, her _nephew_ , the person who was not supposed to be alive. She could feel her own eyes begin to tear up, and her throat clogged, but she was still able to stutter out, "Who are you?"

"Well, Aunt Cass," the young man began with a quiet chuckle, as if everything was okay, as if absolutely nothing so tragic had ever happened to him only a number of months ago, as if no damage had been done to the Hamada family and beyond. "I figured that in such short of time, you would still recognize me."

Upon the heart-failing encounter, Cass did not remember screaming. She did not remember falling to the ground, she did not remember blacking out, and she certainly did not remember the imposter making any notion of leaving thereafter. But when she woke up on the café floor perhaps minutes later, perhaps hours later, to the rough shaking of Hiro's grip, the first thing she did remember was the piercing stare Tadashi had sealed in her mind.

0o0o0o0

Hiro had returned home that night feeling blind and numb. He should have known better than to grab onto the possibility that Tadashi was still around, that he was still alive. It was ridiculous to even think of such a thing. And now that it was all over, and Hiro knew he had fallen right into Obake's hands, he could not have felt more foolish. He wanted so badly to cling onto the thread of hope that maybe, just maybe it was real, that it was not just another dream and it was not some cruel joke, but of course he had to be let down in a breath-taking blow that was almost guaranteed not to wear off for a long time.

Looking past his hood pulled over his eyes, Hiro grabbed a tight hold of the café's house door and gently swung it open, letting it shut silently behind him as he kicked off his shoes, abandoning them on his ascent upstairs. He paused halfway up when he heard the clatter of dishes in the café kitchen, and with a slow yet intrigued nature he backtracked a few steps to look beyond the pantry and in the kitchen where his Aunt Cass was busy washing and drying the leftovers of today's work. Hiro watched her for a few moments, part of him wanting to drop everything and give her a hug, but figured he wouldn't be able to fight back tears if he did. So he instead continued his path up the two flights to his bedroom, retiring to sleep as soon as he dropped on his bed, making sure to face away from his late brother's portion of the room.

0o0o0o0

Aunt Cass carefully lifted her head, flinching at the sudden light that hit her vision like an express train. Her slowly processing thoughts about what had just happened all came to a shuddering halt when her ears caught the sound of Hiro's urgent cries, and she just then realized that her only nephew was clutching both of her shoulders in a death grip, shaking her desperately and wishing over and over again for her to "wake up." Her motherly instincts instantaneously took over and she bolted upright, staring in bewilderment at Hiro's eyes, her nephew who was kneeling before her with an expression that defined the word fear. Upon the understanding that he was somehow hurt, no matter it being physical or emotional, Cass made the quick move to reach out and pull him into the tightest hug she had ever given him, though she did not yet know what put him in such a state. However the sudden arrival of Hiro did not chase away Tadashi's dark eyes that pierced holes right through Cass's heart.

When the memory sunk in, Cass opened her eyes again, not daring to loosen the embrace she shared with her nephew as the previous encounter fully processed. Her thoughts hit a dead end and she just sat there on the café's wooden flooring, stunned. Did that even happen? What else would explain why she woke up on the floor of her coffee shop with an emotionally unstable nephew clinging to her like a lifeline? The reminder brought her back to reality and Cass was brought back to the present, unsure what made Hiro break like this but determined to help make things right again. She drew him closer, not minding his silent sobs, not minding his tears. She herself was emitting her own.

0o0o0o0

Not much time went by when Hiro was thrown back into the waking world. His breathing hitched in his throat when he heard the most heart-stopping scream come from two stories below him, a loud, high-pitched, shrill noise that Hiro wished to never hear again coming from his Aunt's mouth. At first he was too shaken to move. The shock of the moment forced him still, killed his nerves, froze his ability to respond to the environment around him. He could barely get himself to breathe. It seemed to be an eternity later when something inside of him suddenly snapped, and in seconds his adrenaline took over.

Practically throwing himself across the room, Hiro tumbled down the stairs and charged into the café, his eyes wide in a panic and his heart thumping madly against his chest. "Aunt Cass!" he called out, terrified for what could have made her scream in such a blood-curdling manner.

He found her lying on the floor, unmoving and unconscious. The mere sight of her vulnerability made his composure or lack thereof crumble into bits. With shaking hands and a stuttering whisper, Hiro fell on his knees at his Aunt's side, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her roughly, unable to find his voice. When she let out a small moan of protest, Hiro's heart leapt and he regained the strength to speak clearly, no ounce of urgency left out of his tone.

"Aunt Cass… Aunt Cass… wake up, wake up, wake up, please wake up…" He didn't even know he was crying until he saw water drops staining the front of his Aunt's shirt. And his crying was quickly transformed to sobbing when Cass finally did come to, and the first thing she did that made the dam break was pull him close in a bone-crushing, heart-melting, tear-spilling hug. It was one meant to reassure him, one to let him know that she was there for him, and yet it also had to do with comforting herself. Hiro didn't know what hurt Cass so much as to lead her into blacking out on the floor, but he didn't need to know; all he felt compelled to do at that moment was to help make things right again. So he did not hesitate to hug her back.

 **A/N: A piece I quite literally threw together, but a piece nonetheless. I know it does not make sense canon-wise, considering Tadashi only existed through the contact lenses, and the events did not happen on Halloween day (I think), but logic shouldn't matter in fiction. Also this is the first time I ever went for a sort of future-to-past style of writing, so I hope I didn't make it confusing for anyone. I'm sure you guys would have figured it out, but if you want to read the sections in chronological order you only need to switch the last two paragraphs. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this.**


End file.
